Somehow I’ve managed to get myself into a similar situation at work lately. I’ll get a request to do something that seems silly and so I will ask for clarification. They insist “Yes, please do it exactly as you described.” So I give up and complete the job. I send it out for their approval and “Please do everything completely different.”

Although, Biff has a case here.
In “One picket fence,” the “one” applies to “fence.”
In “One-picket fence,” the “one” applies to “picket.”
So it’s the contractors, not Biff who have messed up their English.